The online network X has caused major outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
